abstract
I designed this website and introductory video for the Sound special issue in C&C Online, which I guest-edited (with Byron Hawk). The video is a 2-minute mash-up/remix of the webtexts contained in the special issue and serves as our “letter from the guest editors” in a multimedia format. (Note: The video is hosted on my server because of space issues on the C&C Online server.)

This editorial column introduced four webtexts on wireless technologies, focusing on the rhetoric and pedagogy of wireless labs and writing classrooms, but also on whether these technologies actually help or hinder our teaching.

This editorial column focuses on webtexts that originated as presentations at the 2005 Computers and Writing conference. This CoverWeb (themed) section contained six webtexts on a range of topics related to technology and writing studies.

abstract
Because of the rise in multiliteracies scholarship since 1999, and with it a dramatic increase in the kinds of texts students read and compose in writing classrooms, this special issue hopes to introduce readers to a next step in multiliteracies composition. That is, we’ve moved—as a field—from linguistic to visual meaning-making, all in digital environments; so, a logical progression is to include other modes of meaning including audio. In doing so, we hope to provide readers with an overview of how a multiliteracies approach that incorporates attention to audio is possible within composition studies. The seven articles in this issue explore forms of audio from several theoretical, historical, and musical perspectives, adding a breadth and richness to current scholarship that uses sound in compositional practices. The authors discuss a range of sonic genres including opera, hip-hop, rock-n-roll, as well as voiceovers and soundtracks. The timeline of these genres covers centuries, from Wagner to digital multimodality (if not virtual reality, although that’s mentioned along the way). The authors connect their discussion of audio—from sampling, sound effects, professional and amateur recordings, and hypermediation—to composition and knowledge-making methods as diverse as using citation systems and teaching sonic literacies.

This CoverWeb (themed section) column introduces four webtexts about online communication. The texts include topics such as teaching digital writing, using templates and wikis in the classroom, and researching place-based blogs.

abstract
This mash-up of video and audio pieces serves as an introduction to the special issue on sound. Like a traditional “letter from the guest editors,” in which editors contextualize and provide abtracts of the articles in a special issue, this mash-up provides “abstracts” of video and audio that are included in the authors’ texts, thereby contextualizing them by juxtaposing the multiple modes of communication in one text. By splicing samples together (a la the hip hop tradition) from the 14 authors’ pieces, this introduction enacts the performative, aesthetic qualities that the authors articulate are necessary to composition studies in the 21st century. From visual and aural noise at the beginning of the intro, the editors move into an argument for including sound as part of digital writing’s compositional space — that sampling, voiceovers, cut-ups, and other oral/aural considerations can take us into what happens next in writing studies. (Note: Video hosted on my website due to space limitations on C&C Online server.)

The Logging On column in Kairos is equivalent to the editor’s letter in print journals. (This was my first time writing this column after being promoted to Editor.) The column outlines the vision changes that I and my co-editor initiated with the journal (as well as some that the Senior Editors initiated in their new position). Some of those changes include adding new sections that highlight and explain how to read experimental, multimodal scholarship; updating our unique peer-review process (which involves collaboration among 50+ nationally recognized scholars), and more. We also outline the historically focused webtexts published in the anniversary issue.